Back to Books ~2010 Summary

Patrick Ness The Chaos Walking Trilogy – The Knife of Never Letting Go The Ask and the Answer Monsters of Men

Extraordinary and unforgettable, Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy is a fantastic series in its own right, owing very little to those before it. To peg the series as another YA trilogy is to ignore how uncommonly real and whole its characters are, how fully realized its world, and how even the typeset jangles off the page. There are small imperfections here, but Chaos Walking is still a head above its peers.

Jasper Fforde Shades of Grey

There is no explaining, or even summarizing, Shades of Grey. Jasper Fforde has a secret stash of brilliant ideas the way most of us have junk drawers full of old pens and outdated carryout menus. Class stratification based on color perception. Killer swans. Carnivorous trees. Improved queuing. Shades of Grey is creative to the point of lunacy, outrageously witty, and totally disinterested in banality.

Peter S. Beagle We Never Talk About My Brother

Most writers take an entire novel to do badly what Peter S. Beagle can do remarkably well in just a handful of pages. We Never Talk About My Brother is a collection of short stories that are each delivered unquestionably whole and could have been done no other way. Peter S. Beagle has such a command of voice that his characters take up no unnecessary space. The stories are masterfully crafted and are only ever too short because they end too soon.

Scott Westerfeld Behemoth

Scott Westerfeld’s Behemoth is the second book in his presumed-dead-on-arrival new series. Its predecessor, Leviathan, was too clumsy for someone with so much work behind him, but Behemoth somehow emerges from its shadows with enough wit, action and heart to recapture our hopes for the series. This steampunk version of a wildly different WWI pits Clankers (wielding machinery) against the Darwinists (wielding less-than-natural selection). Secrets, deception and plenty of fighting keeps Behemoth an engaging wartime tale. If Westerfeld can keep the momentum he’s gained, the upcoming third installation, Goliath, should be a satisfying conclusion.

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Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae. -- Kurt Vonnegut

Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves. -- Brendan Francis Behan

[My play] was rejected by every Broadway producer in terms so outraged that I determined never to write another one, thus saving myself years of futile effort and frustration. [...] But this glimpse of my past monstrosity has made me so grateful to those I once thought cruel that I shall go on yelling "tripe" whenever tripe is served. -- Theater critic Larry Mackay, Please Don't Eat the Daisies